WILMINGTON, NC (WWAY) — In the last several months the Wilmington Police Department has seen low morale, problems in the K9 unit, and several SBI investigations.

Despite these issues, Wilmington City Manager Sterling Cheatham says crime rates have gone down virtually every year for the last ten years. Cheatham says an organization as big as WPD is bound to face problems.

“You will encounter some challenges, and the important thing is to learn from all of them and to train and to enforce what the expected behaviors are,” Cheatham said.

When we spoke to Cheatham in March, he said he wished Wilmington Police Chief Ralph Evangelous would be more patient with him and others.

“I don’t know that I’ve seen or expected to see any overnight changes in our police chief’s patience, because he has high expectations,” Cheatham said.

Looking at that data (only up to 2012)I see right off that Leland is more than twice as Dangerous, Wrightsville Beach is more dangerous and Carolina Beach slightly less. SO.. why aren’t you condemning those departments and not being thankful Wilmington is better than some of the surrounding areas?

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zenobia

2015 years 8 months ago

By this logic, if the police killed everyone in Wilmington, they would be doing a great job because crime rates would immediately drop to zero.

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tke1

2015 years 8 months ago

Apparently the WPD is doing a good job in taking the “hoods” out of the neighborhood. All the Al and Jesse wannabes are crying to the Justice Department which, in turn, is compelled to investigate.
If you notice, the local media does not report the findings of the investigations since the might look favorably on the local Police. They jump, however, at the chance to report that an “INVESTIGATION” is taking place and the uninformed public assumes the worst.
Any time law enforcement makes it tough on the criminal element, their cries of foul will increase. If it makes the lowlifes feel better, let them cry.

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John

2015 years 8 months ago

How can they say the Chief’s doing a good job, when, most everyone I speak to says he’s a complete imbecile?